‘Dirty tricks’ election campaign

It wouldn’t be an election without some mud being thrown in an attempt to undermine the competition, and this state election cycle has been no different.

City News reported last week on the City of Sydney’s selective removal of pole posters which saw Council contractors remove Sydney Greens candidate De Brierley Newton’s posters within 24 hours, while MP Verity Firth’s posters had been up since Christmas.

Pole-gate was nothing compared with the underhanded tactics taking place in the seat of Marrickville as Greens candidate Fiona Byrne is weathering a storm of “dirty tricks”.

The first incident occurred when voters in the seat were contacted by telephone interviewers, alluding to be from the council and asking questions such as “did you know Fiona Byrne led a boycott against Israel on council recently?”.

Cr Byrne said the survey was actually a push-poll; a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as a poll.

“The market research company that was commissioned to do the polling and surveys have come out and denied that it’s a push-poll,” Cr Byrne said. “But I think the onus is on the company to ensure that people are absolutely clear about who they are representing.”

Cr Byrne said that she had been contacted by several residents who were very concerned and confused because they thought they had been doing a survey for Marrickville council until the last question when callers asked about Cr Byrne as an individual.

“They were upset because their trust had been broken,” she said. “If Marrickville council wants to do a survey in the next six months we could come across a situation where people refuse to be a part of it.”

The next incident occurred on February 26 when The Daily Telegraph reported; “the Greens have threatened a trade boycott… in an attack on China”. Cr Byrne said her statements were taken “completely out of context”.

“I have never said that I want to boycott China, I have no intention or plan to boycott China,” she said. “What I did say is that if our community comes to us and asks us to discuss things we will do that.

“The Tibetan community have told us they do not want us to boycott China,” she said.

Cr Byrne also talked of unauthorised and illegal signage popping up throughout the electorate saying that the Greens were; “anti-gay, anti-women, anti-community”, Cr Byrne has made a formal complaint to the electoral commission.

Cr Byrne also said that she was eager to return the signs to their rightful owners should they wish to collect them.

“It’s about creating confusion and fear for thoe who may be contemplating voting Greens for the first time,” she said. “We are accountable for our policies and everybody knows what we stand for.”